This is the second article in our Dynamics 365 search capabilities series. The previous article can be found here: Dynamics 365 Search Capabilities. This article looks in more detail and compares the standard Dynamics 365 search functionality with Paribus 365’s capabilities.
GLOBAL SEARCH
Relevance Search: Yes
Paribus 365: No
Global search is powered by either Category search or Dynamics 365 Relevance Search. It is currently not possible to replace either of the standard Dynamics 365 search options with a “custom” search operation.
ACCESSIBLE THROUGHOUT THE APPLICATION
Relevance Search: Single Entry Point
Paribus 365: Configurable
Relevance Search is by default accessible from the main menu bar at the top of the application – however, there is no context applied to the search.
Paribus 365 can be easily configured to be accessible within an area of the application as required AND the searches carried out at that point, will have the context required. For example, when searching for an Account, the search will be done in that context – able to bring back Account and Lead records where the account ID matched.
“FUZZY” SEARCH
Relevance Search: Very limited
Paribus 365: Very Powerful
Relevance Search uses the Azure text search engine. This can be seen in the fact that default Dynamics 365 Relevance Search will return any indexed entity records containing the text term(s) used in the search. There is some string “tidy up” For example, it will find IBM and I.B.M but not much more. It will not find William when a user searches for Billy.
Paribus 365 has been built on a data matching engine, which has then been applied to search, lookup and duplicate detection functions. It uses a number of data type-specific algorithms to match data, more details on the Paribus Data Matching Engine available here.
SEARCH REFINEMENT
Relevance Search: Additional elements increase the number of records returned
Paribus 365: Additional elements reduce the number of records returned
When adding data elements to a search, for example, Smith + ACME Ltd, Dynamics 365 Relevance Search will increase the number of results returned. Including those with just Smith and ACME Ltd. This means the user has MORE data to sift through to find the record required.
Paribus 365 will return a REFINED list of results only where the data elements (including their combined fuzzy equivalents) exist. Making it easier for a user to identify the required record.
CONTEXT FOCUS
Relevance Search: No
Paribus 365: Yes
Relevance Search returns ALL entity record types where it finds the search string text. It is possible to configure the indexed entity types but by default, all entities are enabled.
Paribus 365 by default is looking for People or Organizations, and therefore only looks at Accounts, Contacts, Leads and associated addresses. It is possible to include other entities or custom entities that may contain People or Organizations, for example, a custom entity containing Doctors.
ENHANCED LOOKUP
Relevance Search: No
Paribus 365: Yes
Relevance Search is only available as a Global Search option from the top menu bar.
Paribus 365 can be easily configured to be added to ANY form where the requirement is to associate a Person or Organization to a record. This includes standard entities such as Cases, where the Customer field can be either a Person (Contact) or an Organization (Account). Multiple Paribus 365 Lookups can be added to a form providing a significant usability enhancement for this functional requirement with the additional benefit of the inherent Fuzzy search.
LEAD MATCHING
Relevance Search: No
Paribus 365: Yes
Relevance Search is only available as a Global Search option from the top menu bar.
Paribus 365 enables a user on the opening of a Lead record to immediately be aware of any similar Person or Organization that already exists in the system. For example, there are pre-existing Leads, Accounts, Contacts. Therefore, the user can make a far better assessment of the qualification of the Lead knowing and being able to easily review these existing records.
Paribus 365 easily enables a user to associate a new Lead with a pre-existing Account and/or Contact.
RESULT CONFIGURATION
Relevance Search: No
Paribus 365: Yes
The format and layout of the results returned by the Dynamics 365 Relevance Search are fixed.
The results returned by Paribus 365 are available in either a “Card View” or within a “Grid View”. The data elements displayed with the results can be customized to suit the customer requirements, note custom fields can be included.
DUPLICATE DETECTION
Relevance Search: No
Paribus 365: Yes
Relevance Search plays no part in the duplicate detection process. Standard duplicate detection is based on a very simple data matching process, i.e. Contains, Equal to etc.
Paribus 365 is embedded in the Add Account/Contact/Lead process (not Quick Create). Again, providing a fuzzy search based, enhanced user experience to identify existing records, during the add process but with minimal data entry required to check for existing records.
CUSTOMIZABLE ACTIONS
Relevance Search: No
Paribus 365: Yes
Paribus 365 is installed with a pre-defined action that can be taken at the point of identifying a record from a search or lookup. These include Review, Go To, Associate. However, it is possible to add customized actions, for example, an action called LinkedIn – where a user may wish to call out to LinkedIn and view matching Linkedin results. Custom code can be added to Paribus 365 as required.
SECURE DATA
Relevance Search: Yes
Paribus 365: Yes
Relevance Search being based on Azure search inherently has all the data security provided by this service. However, all the data being indexed is held within the Azure search service.
Paribus 365 is run as a service with Azure, it has a similar level of core security, however, various additional steps have been taken to provide security of the data including certified HTTPS data transmission, multiple levels of encryption within the service and associated data storage.
The Paribus 365 service running in Azure requires only Accounts/Contact/Leads/Addresses and within these entities, only the data attributes required for the matching/display purposes.
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